Hawkish Likud MK expects Lebanon war within days: Beirut suburb will ‘look like Gaza’
Nissim Vaturi lays out war plan beginning with 4- to 5-day preemptive strike, claiming Netanyahu agrees with him, as Gantz says Israel should have shifted focus to Hezbollah by now
Likud MK Nissim Vaturi, a member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, claimed early Monday morning that it is “a matter of days” before full-on war erupts between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Vaturi, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling party, told the Kan public broadcaster that when this happens, Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb — a major Hezbollah stronghold — “will look like Gaza.”
“There is no other way,” Vaturi declared, adding that Netanyahu was of the same opinion and that “this is something that will develop in the coming days.”
He said Netanyahu briefed military officials Sunday and told them, “We must end this saga.”
Vaturi said he thought the war in Lebanon should begin with a major preemptive strike similar to the one that largely foiled a planned major Hezbollah attack on central Israel in late August — only this one would last at least 4-5 days, followed by a ground invasion.
“I think it’s time to deal with the north. We cannot keep standing on the sidelines and watching ourselves lose the north. We will make a decision. Hezbollah isn’t willing to move from the border, so we need to deal with this with a mighty war. Our patience has run out,” he said.
Vaturi has faced heavy criticism in the past for multiple comments calling to “burn Gaza,” and he contended in January there are no innocent Palestinian civilians left in the Strip.
Vaturi’s comments came as National Unity leader and former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said on Sunday that Israel ought to have shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon and Iran by now, saying that “we are late on this.”
Speaking at the Middle East America Dialogue (MEAD) summit in Washington, DC, Gantz said Hamas was “old news” and that the “real issue” was now Iran and its proxies in the Middle East, especially Lebanon.
Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war raging there since Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 20 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 433 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 78 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have especially escalated in recent weeks after Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s military chief, Fuad Shukr, at the end of July.
The Lebanese terror organization vowed to retaliate and eventually fired a volley of hundreds of rockets at Israel, just after the IDF launched its preemptive operation in Lebanon where it struck hundreds of sites it said would have been used against Israel in an even more serious attack.
